Tailgater's Remorse

One efficient way of dealing with some jerk riding right on your bumper!

Of course, that's not what the Times-Standard newspaper says happened:
Safety Corridor crash leaves one dead; wrong-way driving leads to head-on collision

What caused the head-on was the guy tailgating that couldn't get out of the way. This guy, Joshua Larson, wasn't drunk out of his mind. He was obviously just reckless, admittedly driving 55 mph in a 50 mile per hour Safety Corridor right on the other car's bumper and as a consequence responsible, at least as equally responsible, for this woman's death as she was.

Now to the potential death caused by another deliberately negligent driver as reported in the Saturday, January 7, 2012, issue of the Times-Standard: Family takes road worker off life support - "Arcata man's health unchanged since accident on Myrtle Avenue".

Arcata resident Martha Johnson, Newell's sister, said the family decided to take Newell, 68, off life support three days ago, after doctors explained that the damage to his brain is extensive. Johnson said all the doctors and family can do now is make Newell as comfortable as possible.
”He most likely will pass within a few days,” Johnson said. [Emphasis added.]

The newspaper account says Eugene Palmer, 17, a Eureka resident's "windshield fogged up and he was unable to see the roadway ahead of him. CHP said he continued to drive and went over cones and into the construction site, hitting Newell."

He is responsible for Kenneth Newell's imminent death because "he continued to drive" when  he obviously could not see. I've had my window fog up driving commercial rig when a heater hose broke. The moment I couldn't see, I stopped. When you're hauling 8,000 gallons of gas, you stop as fast as you can, regardless of the circumstances. The fact is you never start driving a commercial vehicle with a dirty, greasy or dusty windshield and mirrors.

Problem is, that was a cold morning and all the windows were frozen up. "He continued to drive" with a fogged up windshield, obviously, because he had been driving unable to see with a fogged up windshield all the time. That's why he didn't stop. Not even when he ran over safety cones.

What happened to Kenneth Newell was NO ACCIDENT. Eugene Palmer's actions were deliberate and purposeful making him personally responsible for Kenneth Newell's condition and eminent death.

It's time to reassess these so-called unavoidable "accidents" for exactly what they are - WRECKS.

PS. The next time you get right on someone's bumper trying to bully your way, you think about what might happen when that car suddenly moves over and there is someone coming at you 90 miles an hour.

--Joe

Another Logging Tradgedy

Fortuna logger killed in accident – Woods fatality is the second in Humboldt County in a week. Reported by John Driscoll in the Wednesday, August 25, 2010, Times Standard newspaper.

As a logger that's been around the woods most of his life, and set his fair share of chokers, one of the things I learned early on, is that injury and death happens, BUT not because “setting chokers” is inherently “dangerous.” Subscribe to Twitter and follow the California Highway Patrol and you'll darn soon learn that getting in your car and driving around the North Coast is darn “dangerous.” Safety in the woods is the same as driving in Eureka. It all starts with the right attitude – pay attention and don't assume anything.

Most of the time injury or death is just stupid carelessness. The young man from Idaho was too experienced to get caught-up that way. Here again, working down hill. How about Mr. Moran? The paper says his age is 36. How long had he set chokers or worked under a yarder? Giving the go-ahead after setting chokers when you are down hill, or below the turn of logs tells me there's something else going on here. Which is what usually always happens when there's more workers then there is work.

How many deaths attributed to Steve Will's operations in 30 years? 30 years is plenty enough time for any logging company to be considered experienced with experienced personnel both supervising the operation and in the brush. They, therefore, are experienced enough to know the dangers of operating in particular ways. Other times injury or death is the result of pressure. The constant demand to “move.” Priorities are set on “go” and safety becomes secondary. Expectations set the mental priority and your job is held in the balance. That's when you start taking shortcuts, putting yourself and others in harms way.

Then there's that situation you seemingly don't have any control over. The fluke limb that just came out of nowhere or one particular tree you missed that was rotten to the core and it came back on you. Or maybe you decided to sit down in the shade of a big old uprooted redwood stump one day to eat your lunch and for no apparent reason, without any warning, just toppled over on you. Yes, unforeseen accidents can happen in the woods and on the streets and highways even in our homes. It's been my observed experience, however, that REAL unforeseen accidents are a rarity.

These tragedies come close to home. Many times I put my job and my business on the line, jeopardizing my families welfare, over issues of safety. My wife and I feel the loss, again.
[Picture]

--Joe